The biggest in U.S history money laundering

Source of news: www.money.cnn.com

“Liberty Reserve, a major global online cash transfer business run out of Costa Rica, has been shut down and its executives arrested to face U.S. charges of laundering $6 billion.

According to charges unveiled Tuesday by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in New York, "Liberty Reserve has become a financial hub of the cybercrime world, facilitating a broad range of online criminal activity including credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography and narcotics trafficking." According to the indictment, it moved tens of millions of dollars through shell company accounts maintained in Cyprus, Russia, Hong Kong, China, Morocco, Spain and Australia, among other places.

"The coin of its realm was anonymity, and it became a popular hub for fraudsters, hackers and traffickers," said Bharara. "The global enforcement action we announce today is an important step toward reining in the 'Wild West' of illicit Internet banking."

Arthur Budovsky, the founder of Liberty Reserve, was arrested in Spain by Spanish authorities on Friday, along with Azzeddine El Amine, described as his principal deputy. The two men are fighting extradition to the United States. Authorities said Budovsky is a former U.S. citizen who renounced his citizenship and become a Costa Rican national. Five other defendants also face charges.

Liberty Reserve was shut down over the weekend. According to the indictment, it had touted itself as the Internet's "largest payment processor and money transfer system." But authorities said it had never registered with the U.S. Treasury Department as a money transferring business, even though it had more than 1 million customers worldwide, including 200,000 U.S. customers. It handled 12 million financial transactions a year, according to the U.S Attorney.

The Treasury Department also took action Tuesday, naming Liberty Reserve as a money laundering organization, using powers under the Patriot Act to effectively cut the company off from the U.S. financial system. Any global bank that does business with Liberty Reserve could also be cut off from transactions with U.S. banks. Treasury said this is the first time it's used that power in relation to a cybercurrency provider.

Related special report: The cybercrime economy

The indictment charges that Liberty Reserve allowed accounts to use fictitious identities. Unlike traditional banks and legitimate online payment processors, it did not require customers to validate their identity information.” ¹

As you can see from this case, money laundering is the profitable business, but extremely dangerous, because if government will catch you…you will sit for long period.

Another recent news, also about amount of money with a lot of zeros.

Source of news: www. irs.gov

“Co-Owner of Los Angeles County Toy Company Sentenced in Money Laundering Case

On May 6, 2013, in Los Angeles, Calif., Dan “Daisy” Xin Li, co-owner of the Woody Toys, Inc., was sentenced to eight months in prison, followed by six months of home detention. Li’s husband, Jia “Gary” Hui Zhou, will be sentenced at a later date. Li and Zhou pleaded guilty in September 2012 to conspiring to structure currency transactions with a U.S. financial institution to avoid the filing of a Currency Transaction Report. As part of their agreements, the couple forfeited to the federal government $2 million in proceeds that were derived from their money laundering scheme. According to court documents, Li and Zhou participated in an elaborate scheme known as a Black Market Peso Exchange, which is an underground money transfer system that enables international drug trafficking organizations to launder narcotics proceeds. The scheme used “structured” cash deposits in the United States to launder illicit proceeds generated by drug trafficking organizations based in Mexico and Colombia. From 2005 through 2011, approximately $3 million in structured, out-of-state cash was deposited into Woody Toys’ bank accounts. During that same time, Woody Toys took in approximately $3 million in cash without filing the required federal documents. As part of the Black Market Peso Exchange scheme alleged in this case, foreign toy retailers with Colombian and Mexican pesos would contact currency brokers to buy discounted United States dollars, which they used to purchase merchandise from Woody Toys. The dollars being “sold” were allegedly proceeds from illegal drug sales that had been deposited in the toy company’s accounts or delivered to the business. The Colombian or Mexican pesos that the currency broker received from the foreign toy retailer were remitted to the drug trafficking organizations. Previously in this case, Woody Toys, Inc. was sentenced in November 2012 to five years of probation after pleading guilty to money laundering conspiracy charges. The sentence prohibits the company from receiving payments of more than $2,000 in cash and the business may not receive cash from anyone who is not a customer. The company must also report the identity and contact information of all its customers. Finally, the business will be subject to unannounced examinations of its books and records.” ²

Дата добавления: 2015-10-31